The Dallas Mavericks (4-2) will look to extend the first winning streak of the 2026-27 season on Monday when they host the Sacramento Kings (0-6), who are searching for any semblance of balance or defensive identity, at American Airlines Center. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
The Mavericks have won three in a row, including impressive showings against the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Houston Rockets, which have fans wondering whether the fifth-youngest team in the NBA, which came into Dusty May’s
first year as head coach with so many questions, might actually be good. I mean, what happens if the Mavs are actually good? Is that allowed?
Monday’s matchup against Sacramento offers the Mavericks an opportunity to do one of the things that good teams do: beat a bad team. Take care of business. My, how the mindset shifts when the first few things start going right.
Here are three things the Mavericks will have to account for to get a win over a struggling Kings bunch.
Fresh air vs. stale stink
In six short games, the Mavs have become one of the pleasant surprises of the early part of the 2026-27 season. The league is officially taking notice after the team’s 116-111 win over the Houston Rockets on Friday. Cooper Flagg is one of the most likable young, budding stars in the NBA. Irving’s return after missing the entire 2025-26 season while recovering from a mangled ACL is endearing.
Meanwhile, the Kings find themselves on the business end of a brutal 0-6 start in a year when the league’s worst record will no longer be rewarded with the most lottery balls in the 2027 Draft lottery. Including Monday’s game at Dallas, their next seven don’t provide many opportunities to get off the proverbial schneid, either. Sacramento has matchups the Los Angeles Lakers, the San Antonio Spurs, the Portland Trail Blazers and the Oklahoma City Thunder mixed in after the date in Dallas. They are staring 2-11 in the eye. Third-year head coach Doug Christie is a cumulative 49-90 since taking over for Mike Brown, who presided over the short-lived “Light the Beam” era of Kings basketball.
This year’s team has yet to hold an opponent to fewer than 121 points. The defense is… wanting.
Mavericks’ injury report
Mavs fans have been wondering in recent days how stretch big man Santi Aldama will fit into a team chemistry that is already working as the season gets off the ground. Aldama (right knee) is listed as doubtful once again for Monday’s game against the Kings. Word is that Aldama is close to being back, but it doesn’t appear Monday will be the day for his season debut in a Mavericks jersey, at least not as of Sunday night.
One odd note is that Kyrie Irving’s name continues to appear on the Mavericks’ injury report, even after (or, maybe because) he was turned loose in the win over the Rockets. He’s listed as questionable under the heading of injury management. Irving scored a game-high 35 points (in 35 minutes) and dished nine assists in the win that really got the league talking about the young upstart Mavs. The team had 73 hours off after Irving dropped 35 in a win. Is this just going to be a thing on the injury report all year, or what?
Sergio de Larrea (right knee sprain) is listed as out.
Darius Acuff
Love his game or hate his game, rookie Darius Acuff is the most interesting Sacramento Kings talking point for miles and miles and miles. The seventh overall pick of the stacked 2026 NBA Draft class comes into the game averaging 26.3 points per game through his first six. Golden State’s Yaxel Lendeborg (19.8 ppg) has made headlines for his scoring, along with his penchant for running his mouth, and Caleb Wilson (21.2) has impressed for the Chicago Bulls, but no one in the league, rookie or not, has the chance to redefine the term volume shooter quite like Acuff. Head coach Doug Christie has few other options on the roster, as Keegan Murray, Zach laVine, Ben Simmons, Maxime Raynaud and Dylan Cardwell have all been sidelined or limited with injuries to open the year.
Acuff, who was third in the nation in scoring last year while playing college ball for Arkansas, is hoisting a healthy — a robust — 24 shots (9.8 3-pointers) per game. He comes into the game against the Mavericks on the heels of back-to-back 30-plus-point games and is now the youngest King (19 years, 349 days) to ever do that, surpassing the great Oscar Robertson (21 years, 357 days). He scored 38 on nine made 3-pointers in a 136-105 loss at the Memphis Grizzlies and 34 (to go along with 14 assists) in a 132-120 loss at the New Orleans Pelicans. Only Wilt Chamberlain has gotten to 150 career points faster than Acuff to start an NBA career.
Teammate Draymond Green, himself no stranger to on-court drama, had this to say on his podcast:
“My advice to him was just ‘hey man, who else touched the ball that possession?’, he’s like ‘nobody’ and I was like ‘don’t have many of those’ because you can end up having a bunch of those with the Sacramento Kings this year and a few things can happen, you can get guys start plotting against you, guys that don’t really wanna see you do well, guys that start bickering on the side to other guys… you can get guys that get upset like ‘aahh man they wanna give this rookie this, they wanna do that, f**k that!’… and so for me when I saw that, I just wanted to give him a little game.”
For the record, LaVine (elbow soreness) and Cardwell (calf strain) are listed as questionable for Monday’s game.
How to watch
The Mavericks and the Kings are scheduled for a 7 p.m. tip on Monday. The game will be televised locally on KFAA Channel 29 and regionally on sister station throughout the Mavs’ viewership area, which includes North and Central Texas as well as parts of Northern Louisiana. The game will be streamed on MavsTV and on NBA League Pass, where available. The radio call will be on KRLD 105.3 The Fan.
